Flying Fish Restaurant & Bar

Puffed wild rice, pickled enoki, lily bulb, samphire Chef Peter Kuruvita has moved on, but the forward-thinking kitchen at this harbourside big night (and day) out still loves to play with the ingredients du jour. The clear, clean flavour of Chatham Island hapuku is cleverly allowed to star in a dish that engages white balsamic, pink fir potatoes, grapes, hazelnuts and native saltbush leaves. Thick, glistening slabs of tuna top a swatch of pork belly, sweet with caramel miso syrup, although fresh crab, tobiko, chicken skin and pea shoots never quite came together as one. The dining experience is a pleasure in itself, its dazzling end-of-pier location all wood beams and hanging globes that cast a warm glow over the business-meets-pleasure diners (spot the about-to-be-engaged couple. there is often one). An underlying core of sweetness to the food here culminates in a dessert glass of crunchy, freeze-dried mango, macadamia and sheep's milk sorbet.